Mother West Wind 'Why' Stories by Thornton W. Burgess

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XV

WHY SPOTTY THE TURTLE CARRIES HIS HOUSE WITH HIM

Spotty the Turtle sat on an old log on the bank of the Smiling Pool,
taking a sun-bath. He had sat that way for the longest time without
once moving. Peter Rabbit had seen him when he went by on his way to
the Laughing Brook and the Green Forest to look for some one to pass
the time of day with. Spotty was still there when Peter returned a
long time after, and he didn't look as if he had moved. A sudden
thought struck Peter. He couldn't remember that he ever had seen
Spotty's house. He had seen the houses of most of his other friends,
but think as hard as ever he could, he didn't remember having seen
Spotty's.

"Hi, Spotty!" he shouted. "Where do you live?"

Spotty slowly turned his head and looked up at Peter. There was a
twinkle in his eyes, though Peter didn't see it.

"Right here in the Smiling Pool. Where else should I live?" he
replied.

"I mean, where is your house?" returned Peter. "Of course I know you
live in the Smiling Pool, but where is your house? Is it in the bank
or down under water?"

"It is just wherever I happen to be. Just now it is right here," said
Spotty. "I always take it with me wherever I go; I find it much the
handiest way."

[Illustration: "Hi, Spotty!" he shouted. "Where do you live?"]

With that Spotty disappeared. That is to say, his head and legs and
tail disappeared. Peter stared very hard. Then he began to laugh, for
it came to him that what Spotty had said was true. His house was
with him, and now he had simply retired inside. He didn't need any
other house than just that hard, spotted shell, inside of which he was
now so cosily tucked away.

"That's a great idea! Ho, ho, ho! That's a great idea!" shouted Peter.

"Of course it is," replied Spotty, putting nothing but his head out,
"You will always find me at home whenever you call, Peter, and that is
more than you can say of most other people."

All the way to his own home in the dear Old Briar-patch, Peter thought
about Spotty and how queer it was that he should carry his house
around with him.

"I wonder how it happens that he does it," thought he. "No wonder he
is so slow. Of course, it is very handy to have his house always with
him. As he says, he is always at home. Still, when he is in a hurry
to get away from an enemy, it must be very awkward to have to carry
his house on his back. I--I--why, how stupid of me! He doesn't have to
run away at all! All he has got to do is to go inside his house and
stay there until the danger is past! I never thought of that before.
Why, that is the handiest thing I ever heard of."

Now Peter knew that there must be a good story about Spotty and his
house, and you know Peter dearly loves a good story. So at the very
first opportunity the next day, he hurried over to the Smiling Pool to
ask Grandfather Frog about it. As usual, Grandfather Frog was sitting
on his big green lily-pad. No sooner did Peter pop his head above the
edge of the bank of the Smiling Pool than Grandfather Frog exclaimed:

"Chug-a-rum! You've kept me waiting a long time, Peter Rabbit. I don't
like to be kept waiting. If you wanted to know about Spotty the
Turtle, why didn't you come earlier?" All the time there was a twinkle
in the big, goggly eyes of Grandfather Frog.

Peter was so surprised that he couldn't find his tongue. He hadn't
said a word to any one about Spotty, so how could Grandfather Frog
know what he had come for? For a long time he had had a great deal of
respect for Grandfather Frog, who, as you know, is very old and very
wise, but now Peter felt almost afraid of him. You see, it seemed to
Peter as if Grandfather Frog had read his very thoughts.

"I--I didn't know you were waiting. Truly I didn't," stammered Peter.
"If I had, I would have been here long ago. If you please, how did you
know that I was coming and what I was coming for?"

"Never mind how I knew. I know a great deal that I don't tell, which
is more than some folks can say," replied Grandfather Frog.

Peter wondered if he meant him, for you know Peter is a great gossip.
But he didn't say anything, because he didn't know just what to say,
and in a minute Grandfather Frog began the story Peter so much wanted.

"Of course you know, without me telling you, that there is a reason
for Spotty's carrying his house around with him, because there is a
reason for everything in this world. And of course you know that that
reason is because of something that happened a long time ago, way back
in the days when the world was young. Almost everything to-day is the
result of things that happened in those long-ago days. The
great-great-ever-so-great grandfather of Spotty the Turtle lived
then, and unlike Spotty, whom you know, he had no house. He was very
quiet and bashful, was Mr. Turtle, and he never meddled with any one's
business, because he believed that the best way of keeping out of
trouble was to attend strictly to his own affairs.

"He was a good deal like Spotty, just as fond of the water and just as
slow moving, but he didn't have the house which Spotty has now. If he
had had, he would have been saved a great deal of trouble and worry.
For a long time everybody lived at peace with everybody else. Then
came the trying time, of which you already know, when those who lived
on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest had the very hardest kind
of work to find enough to eat, and were hungry most of the time. Now
Mr. Turtle, living in the Smiling Pool, had plenty to eat. He had
nothing to worry about on that score. Everybody who lives in the
Smiling Pool knows that it is the best place in the world, anyway."

Grandfather Frog winked at Jerry Muskrat, who was listening, and Jerry
nodded his head.

"But presently Mr. Turtle discovered that the big people were eating
the little people whenever they could catch them, and that he wasn't
safe a minute when on shore, and not always safe in the water,"
continued Grandfather Frog. "He had two or three very narrow escapes,
and these set him to thinking. He was too slow and awkward to run or
to fight. The only thing he could do was to keep out of sight as much
as possible. So he learned to swim with only his head out of water,
and sometimes with only the end of his nose out of water. When he went
on land, he would cover himself with mud, and then when he heard
anybody coming, he would lie perfectly still, with his legs and his
tail and his head drawn in just as close as possible, so that he
looked for all the world like just a little lump of brown earth.

"One day he had crawled under a piece of bark to rest and at the same
time keep out of sight of any who might happen along. When he got
ready to go on his way, he found that the piece of bark had caught on
his back, and that he was carrying it with him. At first he was
annoyed and started to shake it off. Before he succeeded, he heard
someone coming, so he promptly drew in his head and legs and tail. It
was Mr. Fisher, and he was very hungry and fierce. He looked at the
piece of bark under which Mr. Turtle was hiding, but all he saw was
the bark, because, you know, Mr. Turtle had drawn himself wholly
under.

"'I believe,' said Mr. Fisher, talking out loud to himself, 'that I'll
have a look around the Smiling Pool and see if I can catch that
slow-moving Turtle who lives there. I believe he'll make me a good
dinner.'

"Of course Mr. Turtle heard just what he said, and he blessed the
piece of bark which had hidden him from Mr. Fisher's sight. For a long
time he lay very still. When he did go on, he took the greatest care
not to shake off that piece of bark, for he didn't know but that any
minute he might want to hide under it again. At last he reached the
Smiling Pool and slipped into the water, leaving the piece of bark on
the bank. Thereafter, when he wanted to go on land, he would first
make sure that no one was watching. Then he would crawl under the
piece of bark and get it on his back. Wherever he went he carried the
piece of bark so as to have it handy to hide under.

"Now all this time Old Mother Nature had been watching Mr. Turtle, and
it pleased her to see that he was smart enough to think of such a
clever way of fooling his enemies. So she began to study how she could
help Mr. Turtle. One day she came up behind him just as he sat down to
rest. The piece of bark was uncomfortable and scratched his back, 'I
wish,' said he, talking to himself, for he didn't know that any one
else was near, 'I wish that I had a house of my own that I could carry
on my back all the time and be perfectly safe when I was inside of
it.'

"'You shall have,' said Old Mother Nature, and reaching out, she
touched his back and turned the skin into hard shell. Then she touched
the skin of his stomach and turned that into hard shell. 'Now draw in
your head and your legs and your tail,' said she.

"Mr. Turtle did as he was told to do, and there he was in the very
best and safest kind of a house, perfectly hidden from all his
enemies!

"'Oh, Mother Nature, how can I ever thank you?' he cried.

"'By doing as you always have done, attending wholly to your own
affairs,' replied Old Mother Nature.

"So ever since that long-ago day when the world was young, all Turtles
have carried their houses with them and never have meddled in things
that don't concern them," concluded Grandfather Frog.

"Oh, thank you, Grandfather Frog," exclaimed Peter, drawing a long
breath. "That was a perfectly splendid thing for Old Mother Nature to
do."

Then he started for his own home in the dear Old Briar-patch, and all
the way there he wondered and wondered how Grandfather Frog knew that
he wanted that story, and to this day he hasn't found out. You see, he
didn't notice that Grandfather Frog was listening when he asked Spotty
about his house. Of course, Grandfather Frog knows Peter and his
curiosity so well that he had guessed right away that Peter would come
to him for the story, just as Peter did.

XVI

WHY PADDY THE BEAVER HAS A BROAD TAIL

Usually the thing that interests us most is something that we haven't
got ourselves. It is that way with Peter Rabbit. Peter is not
naturally envious. Oh, my, no! Peter is pretty well satisfied with
what he has, which is quite as it should be. There is only one thing
with which Peter is really dissatisfied, and it is only once in a
while, when he hasn't much of anything else to think about, that he is
dissatisfied with this. Can you guess what it is? Well, it is his
tail. Yes, Sir, that is the one thing that ever really troubles
Peter.

You see, Peter's tail is, nothing but a funny little bunch of cotton,
which doesn't look like a tail at all. The only time he ever sees it
is when he is back to the Smiling Pool and looks over his shoulder at
his reflection in the water, and then, of course, he really doesn't
see his tail itself. So sometimes when Peter sees the fine tails of
his neighbors, a little bit of envy creeps into his heart for just a
little while. Why, even little Danny Meadow Mouse has a real tail,
short as it is. And as for Happy Jack Squirrel and Reddy Fox and Bobby
Coon and Jimmy Skunk, everybody knows what beautiful tails they have.
Once Peter thought about it so much that Grandfather Frog noticed how
sober he was and asked Peter what the trouble was. When Peter told him
that it seemed to him that Old Mother Nature had not been fair in
giving him such a foolish little tail when she had given others such
beautiful ones, Grandfather Frog just opened his big mouth and laughed
until he had to hold his sides.

"Why, Peter," said he, "you look so sober, that I thought you really
had something to worry about. What would you do with a big tail, if
you had one? It would always be in your way. Just think how many times
Reddy Fox or old Granny Fox have almost caught you. They certainly
would have before this, if you had had a long tail sticking out behind
for them to get hold of. I had a long tail when I was young, and I was
mighty glad to get rid of it."

After he heard that, Peter felt better. But he didn't lose interest in
tails, and he spent a great deal of time in wondering why some of his
neighbors had big, bushy tails and some had long, slim tails and why
he himself had almost no tail at all. So when Paddy the Beaver came
to live in the Green Forest, and made a pond there by building a
wonderful dam across the Laughing Brook, the first thing Peter looked
to see was what kind of a tail Paddy has, and the first time he got a
good look at it, his eyes popped almost out of his head. He just
stared and stared. He hardly noticed the wonderful dam or the equally
wonderful canals which Paddy had made. All he could think of was that
great, broad, flat, thick tail, which is so unlike any tail he had
ever seen or heard of.

The very next morning he hurried over to the Smiling Pool to tell
Grandfather Frog about it. Grandfather Frog's big, goggly eyes
twinkled.

"Chug-a-rum!" said he. "Paddy the Beaver has one of the most useful
tails I know of. Would you like to know how he comes by such a queer
tail?"

[Illustration: The first thing Peter looked to see was what kind of a
tail Paddy has.]

"Oh, if you please! If you please, Grandfather Frog! I didn't suppose
there was such a queer tail in all the world, and I don't see what
possible use it can be. Do tell me about it!" cried Peter.

"Chug-a-rum! If you had used your eyes when you visited Paddy, you
might have guessed for yourself how he came by it," replied
Grandfather Frog gruffly. "Some people never do learn to use their
eyes."

Peter looked a bit sheepish, but he said nothing and waited patiently.
Presently Grandfather Frog cleared his throat two or three times and
began to talk.

"Once upon a time, long, long ago, when the world was young--"

"It seems to me that everything wonderful happened long ago when the
world was young," interrupted Peter.

Grandfather Frog looked at Peter severely, and Peter hastened to beg
his pardon.

After a long time Grandfather Frog began again.

"Once on a time, long, long ago, lived Mr. Beaver, the
great-great-ever-so-great grandfather of Paddy up there in the Green
Forest. Old Mr. Beaver was one of the hardest working of all of Old
Mother Nature's big family and one of the smartest, just as Paddy is
to-day. He always seemed happiest when he was busiest, and because he
liked to be happy all the time, he tried to keep busy all the time.

"He was very thrifty, was Mr. Beaver; not at all like some people I
know. He believed in preparing to-day for what might happen to-morrow,
and so when he had all the food he needed for the present, he stored
away food for the time when it might not be so easy to get. And he
believed in helping himself, did Mr. Beaver, and not in leaving
everything to Old Mother Nature, as did most of his neighbors. That is
how he first came to think of making a dam and a pond. Like his small
cousin, Mr. Muskrat, he was very fond of the water, and felt most at
home and safest there. But he found that sometimes the food which he
liked best, which was the bark of certain kinds of trees, grew some
distance from the water, and it was the hardest kind of hard work to
roll and drag the logs down to the water, where he could eat the bark
from them in safety.

"He thought about this a great deal, but instead of going to Old
Mother Nature and complaining, as most of his neighbors would have
done in his place, he studied and studied to find some way to make the
work easier. One day he noticed that a lot of sticks had caught in
the stream where he made his home, and that because the water could
not work its way between them as fast as where nothing hindered it, it
made a little pool just above the sticks. That made him think harder
than ever. He brought some of the logs and sticks from which he had
gnawed the bark and fastened them with the others, and right away the
pool grew bigger. The more sticks he added, the bigger the pool grew.
Mr. Beaver had discovered what a dam is for and how to build it.

"'Why,' thought he, 'if I make a pond at the place nearest to my food
trees, I can carry the water to the trees instead of the trees to the
water; and that will be easier and ever so much safer as well.'

"So Mr. Beaver built a dam at just the right place, while all the
other little people laughed at him and made fun of him for working so
hard. Just as he had thought it would do, the dam made a pond, and the
pond grew bigger and bigger, until it reached the very place where his
food trees grew. Mr. Beaver built him a big, comfortable house out in
the pond, and then he went to work as hard as ever he could to cut
down trees and then cut them up into the right sized pieces to store
away in his big food pile for the winter.

"Now cutting down trees is hard work. Yes, Siree, cutting down trees
is the hardest kind of hard work. Mr. Beaver had to sit up on his hind
legs to do it, and his legs grew very, very tired. In those days he
had a tail very much like the tail of Jerry Muskrat. It was very
useful when he was swimming, but it was of no use at all at any other
time. Sometimes he tried to brace himself with it--when he was
sitting up to cut trees, and found it of no help. But he didn't
complain; he just kept right on working, and only stopped to rest when
his legs ached so that he had to.

"He was working just as usual one day when Old Mother Nature came
along to see how he was getting on. She saw the new dam and the new
pond, and she asked Mr. Beaver who had made them. He told her that he
had and explained why. Old Mother Nature was greatly pleased, but she
didn't say so. She just passed the time of day with him and then sat
down to watch him cut a tree. She saw him try to brace himself with
his useless tail, and she saw him stop to rest his tired legs.

"'That looks to me like pretty hard work,' said Old Mother Nature.

"'So it is,' replied Mr. Beaver, stretching first one leg and then
another. 'But things worth having are worth working for,' and with
that he began cutting again.

"'You ought to have something to sit on,' said Old Mother Nature, her
eyes twinkling.

"Mr. Beaver grinned. 'It would be very nice,' he confessed, 'but I
never waste time wishing for things I haven't got and can't get,' and
went right on cutting.

"The next morning when he awoke, he had the greatest surprise of his
life. He had a new tail! It was broad and thick and flat. It wasn't
like any tail he had ever seen or heard of. At first he didn't know
how to manage it, but when he tried to swim, he found that it was even
better than his old tail for swimming. He hurried over to begin his
day's work, and there he made another discovery; his new tail was just
the most splendid brace! It was almost like a stool to sit on, and he
could work all day long without tiring his legs. Then was Mr. Beaver
very happy, and to show how happy he was, he worked harder than ever.
Later, he found that his new tail was just what he needed to pat down
the mud with which he covered the roof of his house.

"'Why,' he cried, 'I believe it is the most useful tail in all the
world!'

"And then he wished with all his might that Old Mother Nature would
return so that he might thank her for it. And that," concluded
Grandfather Frog, "is how Mr. Beaver came by his broad tail. You see,
Old Mother Nature always helps those who help themselves. And ever
since that long-ago day, all Beavers have had broad tails, and have
been the greatest workers in the world."

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